Kiribati
| Pros |
|---|
| Minimal regulatory oversight and low state interference in small-scale private business operations across the archipelago. |
| Exceptional personal safety and a peaceful social environment with very low rates of violent crime. |
| Untapped opportunities in sustainable marine resources and niche eco-tourism within a vast maritime territory. |
| Cons |
|---|
| Severe infrastructure deficits including unreliable electricity, poor internet connectivity, and extremely limited international logistics. |
| Prohibitive land ownership laws restricting property acquisition to indigenous citizens, hindering permanent business establishment. |
| High geographic isolation and extreme vulnerability to rising sea levels threatening long-term physical asset security. |
Long story short: In Kiribati, the government has neither the means nor the desire to bother you with taxes, it's too busy trying to save its atolls from rising seas. Corruption is barely a thing here, there's simply nothing worth stealing.
The catch: there's almost nothing to build here. The market fits on one hand, a single bank keeps the whole country running, and power cuts are part of daily life in Tarawa.
Beyond that: crime is negligible in the neighborhoods you'll actually live in, the fish is excellent, the lagoons are stunning, and total isolation comes at the price of rare, expensive flights.
Will your income be taxed?
Long story short: NO.
Kiribati doesn't tax personal income, and nobody comes sniffing around when you settle in. No withholding, no tax return, no centre-of-vital-interests trap waiting to snap shut.
Earn what you want: the taxman here simply doesn't know your name.
Will your wealth be taxed?
Long story short: NO.
Kiribati keeps its hands off what you hold. No capital gains tax, no annual wealth grab, no inheritance regime.
Your portfolio compounds in peace and leaves the way it came in; nobody's standing at the door with their palm out.
Easy to run a company there?
Long story short: YES.
Kiribati runs no corporate income tax and no criminal liability for misuse of corporate assets: fiscally and legally featherweight.
The catch: registries are public, so your name as shareholder is one search away for any curious stranger. They won't tax you, they won't prosecute you. They'll just put you in the shop window.
A good fit for a holding?
Long story short: NO.
Kiribati has no treaty network at all, which buries the holding question, full stop.
Every dividend in or out eats the statutory withholding at full rate, and no domestic regime can patch a hole that sits on the source side. Don't park a holding here.
| Country | Status | Dividends | Interest | Royalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| ∅ // no treaties match | ||||
Easy to come and go?
Long story short: SOME.
Kiribati taxes your worldwide income while you're resident, but at least the exit is free: no exit tax on the way out.
Leaving costs you paperwork, not money; your unrealised gains walk out the door with you, untouched.
Is your money watched?
Long story short: NO.
Foreign tax offices see next to nothing of what you do in Kiribati: it has signed few exchange frameworks.
But the corporate registries are public: your shareholdings and directorships are one search away for anyone curious. Invisible from abroad, on display at home.
Is it blacklisted?
Long story short: SOMEWHAT.
Kiribati is flagged by a few national tax administrations (drawn from FR/ES/PT/BR) and sits outside the FATF club.
The friction is selective: anti-abuse rules fire on specific corridors, and counterparties ask more questions than usual. Neither the FATF nor the EU has it on their lists, which keeps the damage contained: a nuisance, not a scarlet letter.
Do you feel free there?
Long story short:
Not enough data to tell how free you'd actually feel in Kiribati.
Connected to the world?
Long story short: POORLY CONNECTED.
The two rails that matter are both dead in Kiribati. Stripe won't onboard you, so card payments mean a foreign structure or a local processor with its own rules. Amazon doesn't deliver either.
Some secondary services run (3/11), but for an online business this is swimming against the current.
Other jurisdictions worth comparing
Picked by similarity of strategic profile to Kiribati. No editorial ranking — neighbours in the same scoring space.